As Handy and Gearing are walking along Swift flies over head and keeps watch over their immediate area. Even more so than usual it’s not only appreciated, but needed. Because as much teasing as Swift has been giving Handy, he is legitimately not well and is in no condition to be trying to pay attention to anything other than his own breathing. And then Gearing isn’t really in any condition to be fighting either. His healing is still at a ridiculous rate, comparatively speaking, but he’s still got a long way to go and the left side of his head is back to being a bandage wrapped misshapen dent. Add on to that their overall progress is actually being slowed down because Gearing’s left foreleg is having such a problem holding him that he routinely doesn’t even use it while he’s walking, and they are right ripe for a flank kicking by an ambush.

They only manage to make it a couple of blocks before a sporadic outburst of gunfire breaks out a street or two over from them and ruins any hope of an uneventful trip.

As Swift swoops down to join Handy and Gearing on the ground, they all go for cover and quickly start looking around, and Gearing asks, “Are my ears that fucked up that I’m only now hearing that?”

Swift shakes her head as she says, “Nope, not just you. This just started.”

Handy peeks out from behind a dumpster and asks, “So a fight just broke out?”

Swift looks around as she nods and then glances over at Gearing. “Yeah, seems like it, but should we even get involved?”

Gearing shrugs as he says, “Well, given all that I know in the area… There’s about a 95% chance that there’s at least one group we would have no problem putting down, and an 80% chance that there’s at least one group that we’d actually want to help.”

Swift smirks before she asks, “And what’s with the fifteen difference?”

Gearing looks over at her and grins as he says, “That’s the odds that both groups are shit we’d want to wipe out… Slavers and raiders for example…”

Swift grins as she starts hopping up and down and fluttering her wings. “It would be a good enough reason to get some exercise in. Especially since I’ve been missing out on all the fun lately.”

“Is this really necessary?” Handy asks with a groan.

Gearing looks over at him and shrugs. “They might have some supplies we could use.”

Handy lets out a long low groan as he hangs his head. At the tail end of it he hocks up a rough sounding bit of mucus and spits a blob of snot out onto the broken concrete around his hooves.

“Good enough for me!” Swift squeals as she peels off and starts gaining altitude via tight circles to build up speed before she zips off in the direction she wants.

A group of traveling merchants have retreated into a half collapsed building, with their pair of pack Brahmin, and use the rubble and walls as a defensive position as several attackers close in from various directions. The overly excited ponies attacking them have a variety of weapons and armor. Most of them have some sort of spiky bits adorning themselves with even some rubber and chains on them. Most of it isn’t really as functional as armor as it is for some kind of intimidation tactic. The mare with rebar sticking out of rubber shoulder pads made of old tires, with a few smaller skulls skewered onto the rebar, is an excellent example of this fear-chic they are going for.

But the attackers aren’t all entirely stupid, despite the way they look. They’ve spread out and are actively using cover as much as they can to avoid weapons fire. The ones that have firearms are shooting from their own positions behind stone or wagon husks. While the ones with melee weapons zip around at blistering speeds as they close the distance to the building in question and take advantage of all of the blind spots along the way.

The wild eyed and macabrely dressed ponies have taken over the buildings all around where the merchants are. A couple of them use the other buildings to breach the one where the traders are hiding by jumping across gaps or going through holes in the mutual walls. This has caused the merchants to spread out on all three floors and even have a couple on the roof to keep them from getting in that way.

A blue blur zips in from above, across from the besieged ruin, and Swift delivers a pair of hoof strikes to the mare trying to sight in down a rifle at the merchants across the street. Power hoof included. As the other wild eyed ponies with her turn after hearing the scream, and feeling the hot blood splat on them, Swift gleefully jumps off the first one and goes after the rest, whipping around and raining down strike after strike with expert precision. Because even if she wasn’t as skilled as she is, her PipBuck’s targeting capabilities make her even more deadly. But as much damage as she’s causing, she’s not really trying to kill them at the moment. She’s simply trying to spread the hurt around enough to draw some attention.

Killing comes later, now she just wants to pull some of the heat off of the ones being surrounded.

At ground level, in front of the next building over, Handy sits down next to a burnt out wagon and pulls his Proditor’s Gladius out of his mouth and takes in a few deep breaths. He pulls out another shop rag and gets ready to blow his nose as he groans, “I theel like thit… Ah’m too thick for thith bullthit…”

“AaaaaggggGGGHHHHHHH!” a buck screams as he comes flying down to ground level from the top of the third floor, where Swift just apple bucked him right off the edge, and he lands on the wagon next to where Handy is sitting with an ‘Oof’. The buck impacts into the wagon, denting the metal slightly, but has enough inertia to flip over and off right in front of Handy.

“Ow,” the buck moans as he lays in the dirt where he was thrown.

Handy stares at him for a second, taking note of the metal and rubber bits the buck is wearing, before he plops his Gladius back into his mouth and shoots the downed buck.

“Aggh!” the buck screams as he jumps from the impact.

And Handy shoots him again.

“Uhg!” the buck blurts out with a recoil.

And yet again Handy shoots him.

“Urk-” the buck chokes out.

Handy shoots him three more times in quick succession as he stares at him. After a few moments of the buck not making any more noise Handy removes the gun from his mouth and walks over as he repeats, “Ah’m too thick to beh puttin’ up wit’ yer bullthit…” He leans over, grabs the bit of fabric near the buck’s side, the only bit that’s filthy, but not bloody, and starts using it to blow his nose. His tail whips out backwards with each honk of his nose, as blob after blob of mucus comes out of his snoot. Afterwards he uses the last bit of clean cloth on this side to wipe off his nose before he straightens up.

Handy takes in a deep breath and lets out a sigh as he smiles. “Much better now! I can breathe!” He looks down, sees the greenish yellow atrocity that he’s created, and blurts out, “Did all of that come out of me?!” He wrinkles up his nose as he says, “That’s just disgusting… I don’t wanna see that…” Then he grabs the dead buck and rolls their body over so he’s dusty side up and snot side down. He pats on the buck’s side and smiles. “Better… Wait… eewww.” He notices he’d gotten some of the snot on his forehoof and quickly starts wiping it off onto the rubber ‘armor’ the buck is wearing as he looks around and tries to figure out what he should be doing.

A unicorn mare in a caravanner jacket comes flying out of the second floor of the building they’re in with another mare on top of her and covered in spikes and rubber. The two hit the ground and tumble, but the peach colored mare in the caravanner outfit ends up getting pinned as the fanatical mare on top of her didn’t even seem to react to the fall very much. And the glazed glee-filled wide eyed look gives a good possible explanation for it: way too many drugs to feel anything. They kick and strike at each other as they roll back and forth and the caravanner mare tries her best to avoid the knife that the one on top of her keeps trying to use on her. But eventually the persistent attacker manages to land a strike and sends a spray of blood out to the side as the caravanner lets out a blood curdling scream that pierces the battleground with heart wrenching clarity.

“I’m gon gutcha, lil fish!” her attacker gloats as she puts the knife in her fetlock and starts licking the blood off of it. “I’m gon have fun listenin’ to you scre-”

A large hunk of masonry impacts the ground just to her right, sailing in from far to her right, and plows right into the drugged up mare and entirely cutting off her gloating in the process. But the mass of stone and mortar doesn’t even slow down as it takes her with it and brutalizes her more by grinding her into the cracked roadway before smashing into the wall of the building next door.

Gearing brings himself back down to all four hooves, from where he’d reared up for the throw, before he starts walking over at a fast trot. “I’m in no mood to be dealing with these crazy fucks. I have too much pent up frustration to be nice to anyone right now.” Gearing hops over on top of the peach unicorn, straddling her as he looks down at her, and her wild-eyed stare just gets worse as someone new stands over her. She’s holding a hoof to the left side of her neck and Gearing can see blood pouring out of it, spurting out in a few instances where her grip just doesn’t seem to be adequate. Gearing reaches for her throat, and the panic just increases in her eyes as she tries to scream, but can’t. She feebly tries to scoot back away from him, but it’s no use as he positions himself with her in such a way that she can’t get away anymore. He pushes her hooves out of the way from where she’s holding her neck, earning another violent shake from her as she’s panicking, and presses his own hoof over, and into, the wound. He uses his left foreleg to grab her snout and asks, “You got any potions?”

In a bid to save her own life, and give him what she has, she nods quickly and waves her right foreleg at a side pouch she has attached under her duster.

Gearing reaches down and starts opening up the pouches with his left forehoof but gets interrupted.

Gearing groans and winces as bullets impact into the middle of his back and right shoulder. He looks up and snarls as he sees the offending attacker shooting at him from the second floor, and a third bullet hits him in the forehead, near his right ear, and ricochets off to the side. His head barely moves from the impact and the snarl on his face just gets that much bigger.

The buck with the rifle lowers his weapon and his eyes go wide as he locks eyes with Gearing and sees the absolute menacing murderous intent being directed his way. And then he starts to turn around to flee as he decides he has better things to be doing than shooting at Gearing right now. Like living. That sounds like an excellent idea to him as he starts to spring around to bolt away.

Time slows to a stand still as Gearing activates SATS.

Select Target: 95% chance of success.

Confirm.

Confirm.

Gearing chucks the blade that the mare he’d just crushed with a large pile of rubble had dropped, and it strikes true: pointed end right into the side of the buck. With the attack over the spell ends.

The buck wavers from the impact, but also loses his balance as he was reared up right on the edge of the building. The strike, and shock of it, causes him to fall right off the building and come to a rough impact to their left. The buck’s hind leg snaps and part of it folds under his body, eliciting a shrill scream as he crumples into a heap. He opens his eyes and looks up at Gearing, who’s looming over both him and the peach mare, and screams with every ounce of sincerity his body can muster, “I’m sorr-ee-!”

A downward thrust of Gearing’s left foreleg cuts him off mid plea as Gearing demonstrates that he really isn’t in the mood to play nice right now. He flicks the bloody mess off of his hoof then leans over as he starts gingerly using his left wing to open up and dig around inside of the mare’s pouch. He ends up tossing item after item to the side, before he finds the bottles that he’s looking for.

While she’s watching he pops the top, and then transfers the bottle to his mouth. And she can’t help a shivering smile crossing her lips as she hopes that now he’ll leave her be. But then her eyes go wide in genuine surprise as he grabs the back of her head with his left forehoof, practically cradling it, and leans down with the potion bottle in his mouth and practically seems like he’s going to kiss her with it. But once the liquid starts pouring into her mouth, and the second she starts tasting it, she locks her lips around it and decides if it’s going to take a kiss to get part of the potion, she’ll oblige.

But as soon as she grabs hold of the bottle, he lets go, and she quickly starts guzzling down as much as she can before he changes his mind on sharing. She’s further surprised, and confused, when she opens her eyes and sees that he has a round two ready, but she gladly partakes in it exactly how it’s offered. After she’s drank all of the second potion she starts coughing and spits the bottle off to the side as she groans and closes her eyes.

The entire time Gearing doesn’t change his position anymore. He keeps hold of her throat, holding her there, and supporting her head, but not moving at all otherwise. She’d just seen him crush a full grown buck’s head in with a single kick. She’s not interested in trying to fight him. He’s holding her down with a single hoof and there’s not much she can do. So she tries to think of what she can offer him to let her go and her mind reels with the possibility that he’s some sort of slaver with nefarious intentions in mind. Especially with the way the two of them are currently positioned: him practically mounting her.

Swift flies by and starts circling around overhead before she laughs and asks, “What the hell, Gearing, I thought you didn’t feel up to fighting? Why’d you kill two then? Or is it you just couldn’t let me have all the fun, is that it?” She starts giggling and prancing around in mid air as she says with a slight tune to it, “Ooohh yeaaah… I gott’em with the leeeft and riiiight, my hooves’, my speed’s, outta siiiiight…”

“I couldn’t just sit by and do nothing…” Gearing looks up at her and smirks as he asks, “Working on your own theme song?”

Swift grins even wider as she continues prancing around mid air. “Nah, that’s one of Nahlah’s that she came up with a while ago… It’s kinda catchy…” She lowers to get closer and folds her forelegs over her chest as she asks, “How’s it look?”

Gearing bobs his head side to side as he says, “Bad… The fall was rough, and then there’s the throat cut… but she should be okay now… I gave her two healing potions.” He eases off the pressure on her throat and carefully peeks under his hoof. Millimeter by millimeter he watches the blood on her peach fur and tries to judge how much of it is fresh free flowing blood and how much of it had already leaked out of her. After a bit, and nothing squirting out over anyone, he pulls his hoof back enough that he can get his wingtip up and start examining her fur. The cut is still present, it’s mostly healed and still closing up, but the majority of the damage seems to be repaired. Gearing slowly lays her back down on the ground, then removes his hoof from the back of her head to let her lay down entirely, as he says, “Easy now. Lay down for a few minutes, you’ve lost a lot of blood. You’re gonna be sore for a while too.”

Handy walks up slowly and puts his pistol back in its holster before he looks them over and sits down as he asks, “What’s going on?”

An older straw yellow stallion comes out of the ruined building where all the excitement has been focused on as he’s putting a rifle over his back and grumbling, “We were getting our keisters kicked before you folks showed up. Thanks for the help!”

“Hey, Roadie, what’s with you guys and getting cornered in buildings? Especially one like this one?” Gearing asks from the side where he sits down next to the mare he’d helped.

Short Road shakes his head and then looks over at Gearing. It only takes a cursory look, even in the early morning light, for him to notice and recognize Gearing’s wings. His eyes go wide before he asks, “Whoa! It’s you?!” The smile on his face explodes as he asks, “What are y’all doing way out here?!”

Gearing waves a hoof around as he shrugs. “Well, you’d said I should go talk to Bottlecap if I wanted information... so… I did… and it’s been pretty fruitful at that!”

Short Road starts laughing as he sits down on the rubble. “So I’ve heard!” He looks between them before he asks, “Did you really bring in a whole caravan’s worth of weapons on your own?!” Gearing grins and nods, causing Roadie to laugh even louder. “Everyone on the trail’s talking about that one!”

Swift looks over at Gearing and waves a hoof about the area. “You know these ponies, Gearing?”

Gearing nods and waves around at the two and those beyond who are coming out of the building. “They’re members of the Finders and work for Bottlecap.” He looks at Short Road as he asks, “What are you doing this far this way though?”

Short Road shrugs before he says, “Bottlecap’s been expanding the routes. I was going to swing by the Arena and see if I can swap anything with the Reapers or wannabes…” He chuckles a bit before he says, “My name might be Short Road, but the road I’ve been trotting has been growing mighty loooong indeed.”

Gearing nods as he looks around. “Fair enough.” He pauses before he looks over at Short Road and asks, “How is everyone?”

Short Road frowns as he says, “We’ve got a couple in rough shape, lost two… one in the initial ambush and another up top. When he got jumped by a couple of the drugged up lunatics that jumped from the other buildings.” He looks around as he frowns. “At least they’re more like the normal crazy types like you run into around down south, and not the cannibalistic psychos… So there’s that.”

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Gearing says as he dips his head.

The peach mare at Gearing’s hooves gapes at him as the voice and tone strike an all too familiar chord with her and her eyes instantly shoot to their widest possible. “Wait, it’s you?!”

Gearing looks down at her and then puts a hoof to his right cheek in mock shock. “Oh, wait, it’s you?!” Earning a couple snickers from Swift and Short Road before he gives her a soft smile and asks, “Still got the necklace?”

Her eyes flinch painfully wider for a moment and she quickly starts patting around on her neckline and chest with a hoof. She reaches into her caravanner traveling clothes and pulls it back as her horn glows. A second later, out pops the silver locket with the ivy motif enveloped in the over glow from her levitation. She gives it a soft kiss and holds it to the side of her cheek before looking up at Gearing and saying with a soft choke, “Don’t go anywhere without it. She’s always close to my heart.”

Swift looks back and forth before waving toward the building they are sheltered in and commenting, “You guys catch up. I’m going to look around and see if any of these bastards have anything we can use.”

Short Road takes his hat off, puts it over his chest, and dips his head as he says, “Go ahead, you’ll get no complaints from me after saving our hides!”

Swift spins around, looks at Handy, and rolls her eyes before she points at the building again. “Handy… go lay down… you look pathetic…”

Handy looks up at her and whines, “I told ya ah dun theel good!”

Swift giggles, blows him a kiss, and zips off as she starts flying around and checking her freshly minted corpses.

Handy heads into the building past Short Road, walks around a bit on the first floor, and then shuts himself in a closet as he groans, “Jud lemmie ‘lone tho I can die already…” A few moments after the rickety wooden door is shut the group all turn and look in its direction as the honking snorting sounds of Handy blowing his nose comes pouring out through the door.

Gearing shakes his head before he looks over at Short Road. “You guys are traders, right?”

Short Road puts on his hat as he gives a weak smile, “That’s what they tell me.”

“You have any supplies with you?”

Short Road’s muzzle splits into a wide smile before he turns his head just a bit to whistle behind him. As a pair of Brahmin start walking forward from their hiding places in the back of the building, their backs heavily laden with sacks, boxes, chests, and some wares simply tied onto the others, Roadie asks, “What are ya looking for?”

After finally completing her circuit checking all of the corpses she’d made, which took some time because she’d been so excited to get in some proper exercise she was simply going from location to location without paying too much attention to where she had left them and only had a number to go by, Swift returns to the half collapsed building with a pair of saddle bags hanging from her forehooves.

She finds the peach unicorn mare sitting outside, leaning against a concrete support pillar, while looking at a silver locket that she has open. She glances up at Swift fluttering in front of her and quickly closes the locket, holding it to herself before she asks, “Get everything you wanted?”

Swift shrugs as she lands and drops the bags onto the ground. “Not really. But I’m hoping we can at least trade this off to get what we need.”

The caravanner tilts her head as she asks, “Well, what do ya need?”

Swift waves over towards the arena as she says, “I’m hoping to pick up some potions and healing items from over at the arena… Hopefully with how much they end up fighting, that means they have a decent supply of medical supplies.”

“For the blue buck?” the mare asks as she starts mindlessly playing with the locket and feeling its texture against her skin.

Swift shrugs but then nods. “Yeah. Sort of. My husband’s sick, I know that, but he’ll get over it in time. I’m more worried about the gold colored smart ass.” She shrugs and grins as she says, “He acts all big and tough, but he’s in pretty rough shape.”

The peach mare smiles as she twirls the necklace’s locket. “I’m pretty sure it’s more than just an act. He’ll probably be fine. He’s crazy from what I hear.” Her muzzle splits into a wide grin and her eyes partially close as she says softly, “But the good kind of crazy… my kind of crazy.”

Swift rolls her eyes as she says, “Oh great… get in line sister…” She starts looking around as she asks, “Where are they at?”

The peach mare points into the next building as she says, “Your gold friend’s over there talking to Roadie. Seems like that conversation’s going to take forever.” She points behind her as she adds, “The blue buck, your husband? He’s in here… I think he fell asleep in the closet.”

Swift starts walking past her as she giggles. “Yeah… he always wants to go lay about and hide from everypony when he’s got the dreaded Buck Flu…”

The peach mare raises an eyebrow as she asks, “‘Buck flu’?”

Swift gives her a wink as she says, “Oh, you know, the Buck Flu… or as me and you would normally call it if we got it ‘The Common Cold’.” She gives the mare a wide grin. The two share a giggle as the peach mare shakes her head at the ridiculousness while Swift continues on into the building.

A few seconds later the peach mare turns around and looks inside as she hears Swift yell, “I said get out here already!”

“Noooo I don’t want to! Leave me alone!”

“Oh come on, you big baby, we gotta go!”

“Lemmie alone, I wanna sleep!”

“You can’t just stay here!”

“Yes I can!”

“What, you just gonna laze about until you die?!”

“Maybe! I’ll probably feel better then!”

“Oh that’s enough of this bullshit! Come on let’s go see if we can get you a doctor at the arena!”

The noise of the scuffle that ensues pours out of the building and Handy yells out, “No! Lemmie alone! I don’t wanna go! Just let me die already! Hey, what are you- You can’t- Stop! Put me down!”

The peach mare stares at the noise and then starts smirking as she sees Swift coming back out of the building with Handy thrown over her back and one of his forelegs held to her chest in some kind of wrestling lock.

As they are passing, Handy whines, “I was comfortable… why’d you have to go and wake me up…”

“Just go to sleep already, we’ll be there soon enough,” Swift says with an amused roll of her eyes.

The peach mare snickers and puts both forehooves to her muzzle as she tries to suppress the laugh that starts bubbling up within her. But that doesn’t last long before she’s causing the street to echo with her laughter as her eyes tear up.

“Why’s everypony picking on me today…” Handy moans as he lies sprawled out like a sack of flour across Swift’s back with his head leaning over her side. He coughs a few times and then hocks up a huge greenish loogey as Swift makes it to the street.

Swift turns around and yells out, “Hey, Gearing, can we get out of here already? I gotta get my fourth child to the doctor! I’m heading to the arena!”

Gearing’s voice yells out from the next building over, “Go ahead and head that way, I’ll catch up in a bit.”

Swift frowns as she stares at the broken window Gearing’s voice came out of. “Oh hell no! I’m already dealing with one of you whiny ass bucks; get your ass out here too! I’m not letting you get out of seeing Big! You’ve put this off long enough!”

“Big? Who’s ‘Big’?” The peach mare’s eyes go wide before she asks quietly, “You mean Big Daddy wants to see him? He in trouble or something?”

Swift looks over at her with a smirk and shrugs before she says, “Not any serious trouble, I don’t think. But he’s been avoiding Big for a while and the longer he takes, the worse this is probably gonna be.”

The peach mare looks off to the side as she says, “I can’t blame him for wanting to avoid it, but you’re right… Really shouldn’t make him wait…”

Gearing’s voice comes from the doorway of the next building, “Alright, Roadie, thanks for the help. I’ll see you around. Take care of yourselves!” Then he starts walking out with his head turned back to look over his left shoulder behind himself as he adds, “And make sure Bottlecap updates the list for me. Thanks again!”

Swift rolls her eyes as she’s already turning around and starts walking away. “It’s about time, come on… And could you grab those two bags there, we’ll need the stuff inside to trade at the Arena.”

“Sure thing!” Gearing happily, and clearly, chirps as he zips over the pile of rubble, grabs the bags, throws them over his back, and takes off after her by quickly taking flight. As he’s casually flying over her and a bit behind he asks, “You wanna switch and I carry him? You guys are probably exhausted… Hell, I can carry both of you if you want.”

Swift shakes her head. “Nah, he hates flying besides-” She stops and scrunches up her nose as she tilts her head just enough to see the edge of his glowing brass form in the corner of her peripheral vision. “I thought you said you wouldn’t be able to fly for a while?”

“Oh, I’m fine now, Roadie had just what I needed,” Gearing says with an almost musical tone. One that sounds weird coming from him and in an almost giddy foalish way.

She looks over her shoulder entirely and up at him, and then comes to an absolute halt as her eyes go wide. “What the fuck happened to you?!”

Gearing flutters around and grins at her as his metallic skin is positively luminescent, and his green wings actually do give off a faint glow. But, as weird as that is to her, that’s not even in the same arena compared to what’s going on with his face. Which is: nothing. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with his face. Not even a single bandage covering him anymore. Even his left ear not only seems to have regrown itself, but that warped edge it had from getting the building dropped on his head has practically disappeared to the point that it’s gone from a near saw tooth look to a gentle ripple.

Gearing gives her a sly smile as he says, “Roadie had what I needed and I was able to heal up entirely.” He stretches one way and then the other, with all four limbs and his neck as he lets out groans of pleasure. “I haven’t felt this great in a looooong time!”

“What the hell?! Did he have an entire pharmacy full of potions?!”

“No,” Gearing says with a childishly wide grin that causes both of his eyes to close entirely. Yes, both of them, as his eyelid has been replaced as well.

“A fucking megaspell!?”

Gearing flips over, flying upside down, and starts flying lazily backwards with his forehooves behind his head. “Nope!”

“Gearing, really, if you got something that can heal that strong, we could really use it. Could it help Nahlah? Any chance of helping Handy?” Swift asks with a hint of apprehension in her voice that betrays her recent incessant teasing.

Gearing turns over and looks at her with an apologetic frown before he says, “If it could help him, I would have said something. But, it can’t. Unfortunately the method’s only going to work for me… and no one else.”

Swift raises an eyebrow as she asks suspiciously, “And that caravanner, that we just so happened to stumble across, who just so happened to have gotten ambushed, just so happened to have exactly what you needed exactly when you needed it?”

Gearing gives her a sheepish smile as he shrugs. “Basically… yeah…”

Swift narrows her eyes as she asks, “And that didn’t seem suspicious to you? Something so rare just falling into your lap after what we just been through?”

Gearing taps his forehooves together as he looks off to the side. “It’s… actually not all that rare… It’s just that I can do things with it that most others can’t…”

“Because you’re… ummm,” Swift starts, and then starts struggling with her words as she tries to think of something that won’t offend him.

“A clockwork?” Gearing offers with a frown. Swift bobs her head around and then nods. Gearing shrugs as he says, “That has a big part of it, yes…”

“You ever going to share with the class?” Swift asks with a faint smile.

Gearing directs his muzzle off to the side, but looks at Swift sideways for a few seconds as he slowly taps his forehooves together in contemplation. “Eventually… maybe… but probably not until it’s really necessary and relevant.”

She rolls her eyes and waves towards him with a wing. “Well if it can help heal you like that, why not let us know so we can help you later if you need it?”

“Because the more it gets used, the higher the chance others might figure out what it is. And if that happens they might find a way to counter it… and then I might not be able to use it when I really need to.” Gearing lets out a sigh and directs his focus elsewhere.

Swift scowls as she stomps a hoof and tilts her head as she stares at him. “But you’re just going to share that kind of ‘Top Secret’ information with that merchant, but not with us?! I mean, hell, we live together!”

Gearing looks over at her, and then slowly lowers himself to the ground. He gets close before he says softly, “Actually, even Roadie doesn’t actually know…”

Swift’s eyes go wide before she waves a forehoof at him. “The hell he doesn’t, what kinda explanation did you give him for this?!”

Gearing looks off to the side and a sly smile crosses his muzzle before he says, “I traded a bunch of different things with him. A lot… And then I mixed up a variety of concoctions and gizmos and used them all at the same time… He thinks I used the supplies to make an auto-repair potion that only works on cyberponies…”

“And… didn’t you?”

Gearing shakes his head and lets out a sigh. “I did what needed to be done first to get it ready, while he wasn’t looking and couldn’t see. And then did everything at once. So he saw the effect, but not the real cause.”

“And you’re fine with tricking him like that? You seemed to be on good terms even before we saved his ass this time,” Swift comments as she looks Gearing over and can’t help but staring at the near mirror polish in the brass covering his entire form.

Gearing narrows his eyes before he says softly, “He’s still a Finder… and right now I’m not sure I can trust the organization as a whole… It depends on how things go with Big Daddy and, ultimately, how things with Lodestar turn out.” He shrugs as he adds, “Information is as much of a commodity as food, ammo, and weapons… and this would be really valuable to the right individuals.”

“Like who?”

Gearing looks around as he rubs his muzzle with a forehoof. “Usury… Red Beard… Slavers and raiders in general… and, if the rumors are right, the Steel Rangers would literally kill for it…” He gives her a mischievous grin as he turns his head and starts walking away. “We’ve all got our own secrets that we’d rather keep to ourselves and away from those that might exploit it… right?”

Swift’s eyes go a bit wider as she looks him over and the coy little smile he’s giving her like the cat that swallowed the canary. But then she relents as she narrows her eyes and lets out an annoyed sigh, “You have a point… I guess…” She waves a wing at him as she says with an annoyed tone in her voice, “The next time you get your ass handed to you, I’ll just tell you ‘Hey, don’t worry, you still got that thing! You know, that thing that you wouldn’t even tell me about? Because it’s so super duper awesomely secret? Yeah, I don’t know what it is but good luck with that!’ and then march my happy ass off so you can figure it out yourself.”

Gearing looks back at her and gives her a foalish grin as he says, “That works!” And the uberly cheerful tone and mood just grates on her nerves even more than the situation had already. Especially with the way he practically hops around and prances in front of her as they continue down the road.

After a few moments of grumbling, Swift looks back over her shoulder, the way they’d come from, before she looks at Gearing and asks, “Didn’t that Road-whatever buck say he was heading to the arena? Why aren’t they coming along?”

Gearing sighs as he doesn’t even look at her and replies, “They wanted to give their coworkers a burial before heading back out. I’d asked if they wanted my help, but they said they’d prefer to do it on their own.”

Swift asks with a smirk, “Really? Did you tell them that you’re a ponified excavator with those hooves of yours?”

Gearing chuckles as he shakes his head. “No, didn’t come up. But I’m pretty sure it didn’t matter…” He lets out a sigh as he says, “It was a private matter for them, and I completely understand that.” He looks back at her and scrunches his shoulders as he gives her a sad smile. “I’m not going to take offense at not being wanted at something like that. It’s not my place.”

As they are walking on Swift can’t help but watch Gearing as he meanders down the dilapidated roadway. Especially the way the green light coming from his wings becomes noticeable when he gets near shadows when they get illuminated by it. But, after a shorter time than she’d expected, she starts noticing that the glow is just a bit fainter. And after a while it becomes clear that it’s entirely gone when they walk through a hollowed out building and his form melts into the shadow.

Once they emerge on the other side of the improvised tunnel, Swift asks, “Your radioactive whatever finally wear off?” Gearing looks back at her and raises an eyebrow and she waves a wing at him as she comments, “Your glow’s worn off…”

Gearing brings a wing around and looks at it, then raises it up to look through it at the sky before folding it neatly at his side again. “Yup. Seems so.”

“So it doesn’t last forever,” Swift says with a tone of curiosity.

“…nothing does…” Gearing replies with a cryptic tone to match.

“But, if it can heal that horrendous of damage that quickly, exactly how bad can you get hurt before it’s more than it can handle? Or can it heal you regardless?” Swift asks in a rapid fire stream and completely ignores the dirty look Gearing shoots her.

“I thought we agreed to let sleeping dogs lie on that?” Gearing asks with a sigh as he starts picking up the pace.

“Oh come on!” Swift groans before trotting faster after him. “It might be important later!”

Gearing spins around and looks her in the face as his expression becomes stoic and infuriatingly unreadable for her. “I’ve never run into an injury that it couldn’t heal.”

Swift’s eyes go wide before she blurts out, “So it’s like that mega spell Fluttershy used during the war?! It can keep you alive and bring you back even from the brink of death?”

“It’s not a mega spell, the power consumption for that is tremendous, and I seriously doubt it’s that potent,” Gearing says flatly.

“But… you just said-”

“What I said was that I’ve never run into an injury that it couldn’t heal. And that’s because I don’t just get myself hurt for shits and giggles. Yes, it’s helped me heal from some pretty grievous wounds, but I’m not willing to test its limitations. Because, at some point, there’s a line. And on one side of that line I can heal back up to pretty much as good as new. And on the other side of that line, I’m dead. A pile of brass that is going to tarnish into nothing or get recycled into ammo casings, paper weights or who knows what else. And I don’t know where that line is, but I know it’s mighty thin and I’m doing my absolute best to never find out where it is,” Gearing snaps.

Swift’s eyes go wide as she looks him straight in the eye and can see the cold calculating stare. The one focused on his own mortality. “But… why didn’t you use it when you got blown up? Why are you just now bringing it up? That would have been a perfect time to use it, wouldn’t it of? I mean…” She waves a hoof at him and gives a sheepish smile. “You were barely standing as it was… And Sable was freaking out about it… and then you went through all of that to get your helmet off…” She shakes her head as she says softly, “I just don’t understand it.”

“If you remember that, you’ll also remember that I couldn’t have any magical healing until I got that helmet off. But, you’re right. It could have completely healed my head back up after ripping that piece of shit dented helmet off my head.” He raises a hoof up and points to the left side of his face as he says, “And I would have ended up like this, if not better… but we didn’t have what we needed. I already double checked with Sable, and she confirmed it. None of you had what I needed. So there was no point in bringing it up.”

Swift’s eyes narrow as she asks, “But that Road-bie buck had everything you needed?”

Gearing nods as he says, “He had exactly what I was looking for. And it helped me tremendously.”

Swift tilts her head as she stares at him for a few seconds. “Well then how about going ahead and start stockpiling it, in case you need it later? If it can help you, that’s less healing potions we have to use on you!”

Gearing nods as he starts turning around. “I’ve already started thinking about that. And I just might.”

Swift starts walking after him as she asks, “Did you get extras for yourself?”

Gearing grins as he replies, “I can neither confirm nor deny that possibility.”

Swift scrunches up her muzzle in annoyance, but it breaks into a slight smile as she starts trotting after him again. But then a realization dawns on her and her eyes go wide as she comes to an absolute stop. “Is that why you wanted magical energy weapon cartridges?!”

Again Gearing grins but adds a chuckle as he repeats the exact same phrase in the exact same tone and cadence, “I can neither confirm nor deny that possibility.”

Swift scowls before she lifts a forehoof and shakes it at him. “You’re really infuriating sometimes, Gearing!”

“Thank you!” comes his musical reply.

Handy leans closer to her ear as he whispers, “Whad da fuk he do width a magic cartrage ta do that?!” Then he snorts and sniffles as his sinuses have apparently filled up once again.

Swift tilts her head to look at him and smirks as she says, “I know, right?! That’s what’s bugging the hell out of me!” She waves a hoof towards Gearing as she says, “If he could bottle that shit he’d be rich!”

Gearing, from a distance away, calls back, “I don’t give a shit about money, you should know that by now.”

Swift’s jaw drops and Handy smirks as he says, “Ah dink his ears err workan ‘gain.”

“Yup! Sure are!” comes Gearing’s cheerful reply before he starts bounding around and practically prancing down the road again.

Swift looks sideways at Handy and partially closes her eyes as she says quietly, “I think he’s just fucking with us so I’ll drop the subject…”

“And I think you need to hurry up before I change my mind on going to the arena!” Gearing calls back from even further away.

“You’re not going to be able to hide from him forever, Gearing!” Swift yells with a chuckle before she hurries to catch up with him.

---

Footnote: !!!WARNING!!! Breech detected!

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